“Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind finds life itself— glorious life!”
Proverbs 21:21 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.
Now, there’s something to cheer about! If you have to go looking for something, why not go looking for what is right and kind? Seems like the obvious thing to do, but surprisingly, we seem to need instruction and guidance and reminders on it. Well, here’s the reminder from Solomon, the Wise, for you and me today. The incentive to do so is that one may find “life itself — glorious life!”
Intriguing words from the wise monarch – and from the wise blogger (viz., you). What is the appropriate way to seek life? Christians are called to lay down their life for another and to the conscious acceptance of their own death. How can we go after life? Maybe it’s the challenge to let go of what we believe is life-giving in the short term: the security of our own comfort and satisfaction. We give up clinging to our own small world and engage with what is “right and kind” around us and beyond us. It’s a very challenging command.
Thank you for your thoughtful commentary. I think you did more to explain it than I did. Although engaging in what is “right and kind” might sometimes bring some unexpected challenges and one might begin to question if that was indeed right and kind…
I think the key is being both: right and kind, not just one without the other. I often create problems for myself by a) being right but not kind or b) being kind but not right. It’s like the pairing of truth and love. Either one is incomplete without the other but together they may lead to the reward of life itself of which Solomon speaks.
That is absolutely brilliant! I create problems for myself all the time doing one of the two and lamenting the consequences of ill-thought out ideas and plans. I must think more and work harder on the alignment of the two.
And I have another thought too… my husband has always said, “it is more important to be kind than to be right.” And this is actually very very difficult especially when you are in the right and wish to call another person out but instead bite your tongue because in doing so you are being kind. I’ve actually said this to my children too, and my secondborn doesn’t take to it very kindly either. This is a difficult thing to achieve — the happy balance of the two, like you say.
Wise words. Maybe it’s all summed up in the healthiest, most complete understanding of love. Sometimes love is not nice. It’s sometimes direct and honest and, in the short term, painful. Sometimes it’s gentle and uplifting and all that Paul says in that famous chapter read at every Christian wedding ceremony. He also says love covers a multitude of sins. So when in doubt, love.
so, when in doubt, love, but then again, love is not always nice, meaning you have to be unkind? I’m so confused…
On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 12:41 PM, Smriti "Simmi" D. Isaac wrote:
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It’s like when a parent has a cow because a teenage son or daughter has not cleaned his/her room for two weeks. Is the parent being nice? Being kind? Showing love? I’d say yes to the last two – that parent is instructing the child, teaching life lessons, preparing him/her for the future, sowing the seeds of responsibility. Is the parent being ‘nice’ while having the cow? That depends on how you define nice. In the short term it might look not so nice, it might get nasty. But in the long term it is true parental love.
Very true. And many thanks.